Annual Reports on Pacific Fallout from New Zealand Monitoring System

Starting in 1957, New Zealand/Aotearoa established a monitoring system to detect radiation levels across the Pacific, sampling air, water, milk and fish at stations located throughout the region. Fallout from French nuclear weapons testing was detected in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu, New Zealand/Aotearoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. While government monitoring suggested that radiation “levels constituted no public health hazard“, further research is required into the human and environmental implications of fallout.

The results were published by the Ministry of Health’s National Radiation Laboratory in the annual reports, which are available for download below. The data up until 1993 were also summarized in the following comprehensive analysis:

K.M. Matthews. (1992/1993) Radioactive fallout in the South Pacific: A History. Part 2: Radioactivity measurements in the Pacific Islands. Christchurch, National Radiation Laboratory. Download.

Annual Reports

1968: “Environmental Radioactivity in New Zealand and Results of Extended Monitoring of Fallout from French Nuclear Tests in the Pacific: Annual Summary 1968.” Download.

1969: “Environmental Radioactivity in New Zealand and Measurements on Samples from Fiji and Rarotonga: Annual Summary 1969.” Download.

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